Fabrication of Bio-ceramic Bone Model

The process parameters and raw materials of current commercial rapid prototyping (RP) machines are lim- ited, thus the bone model is not easily to fabricate. In order to overcome these disadvantages, a self-developed rapid prototyping machine was used to produce bone model. In this work, the hydroxyapatite (HA), silica sol and suspend- ing agent were mixed as raw materials. By adjusting the suitable process parameter, the bio-ceramic green parts could be formed, and then the specimen green parts were sintered at 1200 , 1300 , 1400 , ℃℃℃ respectively. The shrinkage, surface roughness and compression strength were tested. Furthermore, the cell activities of the bone model were inves- tigated through the osteoblast MG63 cells culture. The results showed that the green part sintered at 1200℃ exhibits optimum properties with greatly improved compression strength and surface roughness of Ra (12.04 μm), which is suitable for the growth of the osteoblast MG63.